In this study, published in Pediatrics in 2016, CDC researchers dove into ten years of data to establish the “full vaccination” rates of the influenza virus for 6-23 months old children in the United States. Full vaccination rate was calculated based on the number of vaccinations for each age reported by the National Immunization Survey (NIS).

This study shows a steady increase in the full vaccination rates from 2002-2012 from 4.8% to 44.7%, an average annual increase of 4.2%. This upward trend was observed for each individual age group between six and twenty-three months as well. Although the rate increased over time, over half of all children remained incompletely vaccinated for the influenza virus.

Another troubling observation is that non-white children lagged behind their white peers in all seasons surveyed. This vaccination deficit did not shrink over time- rather, it widened. The black-white deficit went from -3.4% in the first season to -13.7% in the final season surveyed. For Hispanics and whites, the rates went from -3.4% to -8.8%. Although there was a clear increase in the full vaccination rates over time, the study points out that there are still improvements that can be made in the child vaccination rates, particularly for non-white children.